When I started Danger After Dark in the Philadelphia Film Festival (then still named the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema) back in 2001, I had no idea if the concept would really connect with audiences I remember walking to a Ritz theater for our first screening, the Japanese classic FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION: JAILHOUSE 41, and expecting to find a dozen or so friends only to see a packed, sold-out house filled with the type of adventurous, enthused cinephiles that have continued to make up the core DAD audience over time. Throughout those dozen years, the program has seen highs: SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE gave Park Chan-wook one of his first U.S. festival awards during its premiere here, we’ve bestowed tributes on Alex de la Iglesia and Tobe Hooper, held retrospective screenings on everything from Shaw Bros. martial arts classics to lost Catherine Breillat films and collections of silent French porn reels towell, GONE WITH THE POPE. And there have been lows too: for example, if you’ve ever put on 3D glasses before a screening, then please grade those films’ artistic merits on a curve. The last few years have been rocky ones I was not involved with Danger After Dark in 2008 and ‘09 while the two film societies and festivals experienced their division, and when I returned to program in ‘10 and ‘11, the series was shifted to July to function alongside that season’s QFest instead. Last year, Danger After Dark had to take a complete hiatus while I worked to help establish the new, Philly-based distributor Artsploitation Films, but this summer, the program will be returningin a new, expanded form that will also serve as a taste of even greater things to come next year. So, if you’ve appreciated this series in years past, please join us for a look back at a dozen years of Danger After Dark, its ups and downs, and enjoy a secret film that represents the program at its wildest. While we won’t reveal the surprise film in advance, I’ll tell you that it was one of my favorite films I ever programmed, and that it also never received any sort of U.S. release (theatrical or video) after we screened it that year. So begin guessing! — Travis Crawford